MGOCSM of Philly & New Jersey Visit St. Tikhon's

On Saturday May 12, 2007, we were blessed to have youth from Philadelphia and New Jersey come and visit us at St. Tikhon’s. They were accompanied by Very Rev. K. Mathai Chor-Episcopos, Rev. Fr. Philip (Aju) Mathews, Rev. Dn. Daniel Yohanan, and Rev. Dn. Gheevarghese John. The day started with a welcome by Very Rev. Fr. Michael Dahulich who is the Dean of St. Tikhons. He welcomed the visitors to St. Tikhon’s Monastery & Seminary and gave a brief history of the institution. Fr. Michael also reminded the youth of the great blessing we have of being members of the Ancient Malankara Orthodox Church, which was established by St. Thomas the Holy Apostle of our Lord.

After Fr. Michael, Mr. Kyrill Williams, a second year seminarian at St. Tikhon’s gave a devotional talk on the struggles of life. He impressed the young people with his Malayalam as well.

After Kyrill’s devotional, we gave a slide show presentation of the various events that has taken place here at St. Tikhon’s in relation to the Indian Orthodox Church and Her Seminarians. After the slide show, the clergy led us in Noon Prayer after which we enjoyed some pizza.
After lunch, all the guests were given a tour of the Monastery grounds.
The beautiful mosaic Icon of the St. Mary and the saints was seen first.
Then the outside of the Monastery Church.

After this the youth were taken into the woods to see the shrines that are placed throughout grounds of the monastery and seminary so that the people can come pray and meditate in the serene settings.
Visitors were then taken to the Monastery Church, where they were greeted by a few members of the Seminary Mission Choir. The choir chanted a few Orthodox hymns from the Paschal Season of the Church.
After the choir, guests were given a full tour of the Monastery Church by Father Nicodemus, one of the monks of the Monastic Brotherhood of St. Tikhon’s. He gave a full explanation of the history of the Church, the Relics of the Holy Saints who are kept in the Church, the Miracle working Icon of the Blessed Mother and the many saints who have blessed the lands of St. Tikhon’s.

After a tour of the Monastery Church, Father Nicodemus continued the tour outside the Church, explaining the bell tower, the significance of the three bar Cross in the Eastern Orthodox tradition and gave a tour of the Icon Repository which contains a collection of the oldest Icons in America.

After the tour of Fr. Nicodemus, the youth were taken to the Museum to see the history of the Orthodox Church in America after which they were brought to the Seminary Bookstore.

After the books store, the visitors were brought to the dormitory building to see our rooms and brought to our Chapel where we observed Ninth Hour Prayers.

After prayers, we gave gifts to all the visitors on behalf of the Seminary & Monastery Community. We then gave a tour of the Seminary Building and ended the tour back in the mess hall where we provided snacks and other refreshments before they headed back to Philadelphia & New Jersey.


We would like to thank all our Achens, Shemasens, Brothers & Sisters for coming and visiting our Seminary & Monastery. It was a great blessing to have a group of people from our diocese to come spend some time in prayer and fellowship with us and to see where we are formed as (God Willing) future priests of our Church in America. We would like to thank all those who helped coordinate this trip and pray more members of our church can come and visit this holy place. We continue to ask of your prayers for all our seminarians in our Diocese, here at St. Tikhon’s, St. Vladimir’s & Kottayam Seminary.

Your servants in the Lord,
Dn. George (Benny) Mathew Jr. (1st year)
Dennis Mathai (2nd year)
Christopher Mathew (1st year)
Abey ‘Blazer’ George (1st year)